Ideas without action don’t do anything
We try our best to have cultured activities often. It’s not as easy as it sounds, but we try and that’s just going to have to do for now. We’re lucky that we live in a city like St. Louis where culture is everywhere you look. Sometimes it’s obvious, and sometimes you really have to want it and search for it, but I promise you that it’s there.
One of the outings that we try to schedule on the reg is the art museum. The St. Louis Art Museum, simply put, is amazing. There’s an impressive collection there, including one of Monet’s Water Lilies, a variety of Picasso pieces, and even some Van Gogh…and that’s just from artists you’ve heard of. The in-house collection is always complemented by a rotation of impressive traveling exhibits, too, so there’s always a reason to go back.
If you’re not from here and you’re ever in STL, hit me up…we’ll do it.
Art for the sake of art
As, I imagine, is similar to all museums, there are pieces that make you wonder a little bit. Not the good kind of wonder, the kind that inspires imagination, captivates the heart, and sparks creative innocence. No. The other kind of wonder. The “I wonder why the f**k they considered that art and hung up that piece of shit?” kind of wonder.
That kind.
But art is art and that’s just how it goes. I don’t know how to define it, but I know it when I see it…sometimes…sort of…well, not really. But sometimes (usually?) art for the sake of art is ok. Maybe it’s less about how something turned out and more about how it was made, what the artist was trying to say, or what was going through their heart/mind when they made it.
Seeing the unseen
I’ve realized, though, that lately I’ve been gravitating towards the pieces of art that don’t seem very special. The ones that don’t stand out because of their intricate beauty or size or their vague familiarity to whatever was on the cover of my art appreciation textbooks high school.
There’s something about these pieces that I am just now seeing: These are less about what’s in front of you and more about the unseen parts of the process that occurred before they were ever even seen by anyone.
I’m admittedly late to the game here, but oh man I love that.
I used to be one of those people that saw art like this and said, probably a tad louder than was necessary, “Pffft. I could have done that!” and then walked away like a jerk.
But I’ve been turned around on this. I see now that it isn’t about whether or not I could have, but whether or not I actually did.
Now, I hear people at the museum sometimes say, “I don’t get it. I could have done that.” and I want to reply, “Yeah, maybe…but you didn’t.”
Actually doing > Talking about doing
Ideas are great things. Probably the most fragile things ever, but still…great things. They are the result — and cause of — an infinite supply of inspiration and creativity.
But as much as an idea can be, merely having one is never enough. It has to be put into action for it to really serve its true purpose.
- The ideas that actually get tested are the ones that propel innovation.
- The ideas that graduate from the idea stage and actually get done are the ones that advance a purpose.
- The ideas that stay dormant in idea stage do only one thing: jack shit.
That piece of art on the wall that is just a solid blue canvas with a white line on it? Yeah…we all could have done that. I know.
But we didn’t.
Art = Action
I’ll admit that I still don’t know how to define what art is, but they all do have one thing in common and that is that they all are a form of action. It’s a symbol of someone 1) having an idea for a thing, and then 2) doing that thing.
It’s that second step that is seldomly achieved.
Not all ideas make the next round, but there is value in the ones that do. If ideas don’t ever get implemented or tested, then all ideas would be worthless. We define “good” and “bad” ideas by imagining if it could be done, and then what would happen if it was done.
For art, there is something elusively creative and interesting about that step because it won’t do any harm if it doesn’t “work.”
The step itself is the art.
That kind of freedom is unfortunately not found in other lines of work that require creativity, e.g. medicine, business, and politics. But if we can understand that they, too, have that step between “idea” and “action,” maybe…just maybe…we can then appreciate what it takes and what it means to consider and take that step.
Maybe there, we’ll be able to see the unseen, too.
#bewhatyoumake